Nowadays, with the development of wireless communication techniques, the short-range wireless communication technologies, such as Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi® P2P and ultra-wideband (UWB) have become widespread, and the wireless connection technologies between short-range wireless communication terminals, such as Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi® P2P and UWB, present increasing importance.
The users of short-range wireless communication terminals, e.g., mobile phone, MP4 player, portable computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), or wireless TV, are usually located within a small range (e.g., several meters) spaced apart from each other.
To prevent a user who is not authorized to access a certain wireless terminal, it is required to establish an authenticated wireless connection between the wireless terminals of short-range wireless communication. Generally, it is established by the following processes: (a) search for a target wireless device for the connection; and (b) pair the targeted wireless device with the present wireless device. Process (a) is mainly directed to the determination of the target to be connected, and process (b) is mainly directed to the authentication.
FIG. 1 illustrates a general process of establishing an authenticated wireless connection between short-range wireless terminals.
Referring to FIG. 1, assume that wireless device B 102 needs to establish an authenticated wireless connection with wireless device A 101.
Within a range of short-range wireless communication, each wireless device broadcasts its own device ID. In this way, each of the other wireless devices within the range of short-range wireless communication will receive the broadcasted device ID. As illustrated in step SA01, wireless device A broadcasts its own device ID.
Upon the broadcasted device ID being received, the wireless device B 102 stores the device ID in its device ID list. In step SB01, wireless device B 102 searches the device ID list for a device ID of wireless device A 101 to which it needs to be connected, and sends a connection request to wireless device A 101. At this point, it means that process (a) is completed.
In step SA02, wireless device A 101 generates a key and sends to wireless device B 102 an instruction to display “Enter Key.”
In step SB02, wireless device B 102 displays “Enter Key.” Since the user of wireless device B 102 and the user of wireless device A 101 are located within the range of the same short-range communication, the user of wireless device A 101 is asked for the key which is then inputted to wireless device B 102. Wireless device B 102 sends the entered key to wireless device A 101.
In step SA03, wireless device A 101 verifies whether the generated key coincides with the received key. If the generated key coincides with the received key, it means that the pairing process (b) has succeeded; consequently, a physical connection is established between wireless device A 101 and wireless device B 102. If the generated key does not coincide with the received key, then wireless device A 101 generates a key and transmits to wireless device B an instruction to display “Enter Key” in step SA02.
With the above process, if the user of wireless device B 102 is not authorized by the user of wireless device A 101, he or she will not get the key generated by wireless device A 101 and thereby cannot access wireless device A 101.
The aforementioned way to establish an authenticated wireless connection between short-range wireless terminals is disadvantageous in the following two aspects.
First, in process (a), when wireless device B 102 searches the device ID list for a target device ID, the screen will display all the device IDs received by wireless device B 102 in the range of the short-range wireless communication, as shown in FIG. 2. This possibly brings about the following problems:
1. there are too many device IDs received in the range of the short-range wireless communication, resulting in an overlong device ID list which is disadvantageous in searching;
2. since the device ID is named by the wireless device itself, there possibly exists identical device IDs representative of different wireless devices in the device ID list, so that it is unrecognizable which one is the device ID of the target wireless device, e.g., THINKSTATION as shown in FIG. 2;
3. the device ID list may include a long ID which has poor readability and is inconvenient for the use to memorize and search, e.g., Michael Johnson chemical professor test's MacBook Pro as shown in FIG. 2;
4. the device ID list may include a meaningless ID name which is inconvenient for the user to memorize and search, e.g., AV57384579100179478 as shown in FIG. 2.
Second, in the process (b), for accessing wireless device A 101, the user of wireless device B 102 must obtain in advance the key generated by wireless device A 101 and then enter it to wireless device B 102, which is inconvenient for the user.
Therefore, the current method for establishing an authenticated wireless connection between short-range wireless terminals is relatively complicated and inconvenient for the user.